Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It has been years since the last time I had dim sum in San Francisco and I not only love the food, but the whole craziness of the system, so I posted that we’d be going on Dad’s facebook wall and once it was there, it was like a contract that he couldn’t get out of, especially because he got an immediate taker who we didn’t even know was in San Francisco, Ryan Sandrock, former civics teacher and track coach extraordinaire of ESA from right around 1999. Also joining us was Ian Edmundson who left ESA to go to boarding school after his freshman year (he would have graduated sometime in the ‘80s), and Liz Boodle, whom dad had taught during his days at St. Andrews, and crazily had been Mary Cobb’s roommate (whom we had stayed with outside of Kansas City).(From left to right: Ian, Isabelle, Me, Liz, Dad, Ryan)

Although Ian hadn’t graduated from ESA, he had written a book about the history of the founding of ESA! We learned that while the founders quibbled over what the school should be named, Jerry Simon, New Iberian lawyer and grandfather of alumnae Maggie, Katherine, and Martha Simon, had to fill out the paperwork to create the legal status of the school. So he gave the school the simplest and most precise name that he could think of—just for the paperwork—and it stuck. Otherwise, Ian’s working as a finance consultant for small businesses in the bay area, has three children, one of whom is an infant, and doesn’t get a lot of sleep at night.

Liz Boodle was really excited to see dad, as he had been her favorite teacher (he thought she was a great student too) at St. Andrew’s. Dad had told us that she was the sweetest and one of the best students he had taught there. She let him know that appearances were deceiving. She said that she had been on the verge of expulsion during the entirety of her career there, and had even had to go in front of the discipline council a time or two. Although she may have not been the ideal student, she did say that going to boarding school kept her out of worse trouble had she not gone. Now she’s a lawyer in San Francisco, married to another lawyer, and has a blonde son who looks just like his father. I know this because she invited us to stay in her very charming Victorian house, at which we ungraciously arrived very late, and after having cocktails with a whole slew of other alumni.